Finally our holiday update is here! Not quite the whole thing yet, I'd say, but it's a start. Let's just hope we'll complete the series, unlike some..... huh.
So... anyway, as usual, we have our annual homecoming, which we'll dub Holiday 2013 for simplicity's sake. Our objective remain similar to any of our previous homecoming: to meet with the family, both from Mama & Daddy's side. Of course, given the geographical constraint, there is always a lot of interpretation to the objective.
This Holiday, we took the opportunity to explore the Java island from behind the wheel, rather than taking the mighty airplane. The decision was somewhat aided by a few factors: we managed to cut down travel time in the Philippines (and cost!), domestic air tickets were a bit high due to the high season, the family in Surabaya just acquired a new car that was well suited for road trip... all in all, it just seemed like a good time to do something we had always wanted.
In any case, this is the start of our journey this time. You might remember this same spot from our previous homecoming. That year, we were trying a different route via KL as we took the budget airline AirAsia. We liked the fact that we did not have to travel to Manila, but flying 4 hours (plus 8 hrs transit time) on budget proved to be .... less than optimal. So.. this time, we flew budget to Hong Kong, followed with Cathay to Surabaya. The good thing is that Dragon Air, the budget airline, being a subsidiary of Cathay, we were able to make the booking at one shot. Why, since the outbound transit in Hong Kong was only 2 hours, we did not even have to think about our luggage until we reached our final destination! Fantastic.
By the way, the airport had gone through some upgrading, so we checked in at a different part of the building that day, which was decorated for Christmas. Kecil was obviously very happy, not sure if it was for the trip, the decoration, the excitement, or the combo of everything mentioned above. Haha....
At the waiting area, there were more Christmas decoration.
We passed the time stocking up on liquids for the flight (and subsequently using the airport 'facilities', ha!). Kecil was very happy to play with the empty bottles (which was emptied to our 'proper' bottles, not drunk at one sitting!) before throwing them away.
We could see our plane from the huge windows, as well as the gigantic Emirate plane landing not long after. Did you know that they have a direct flight to Doha (by Qatar Airlines) and Dubai (Emirates) from Clark now? Man, we need to start saving money and hunting for things to do in those destination. Haha....
The experienced traveller that Kecil was, she spent no time before going through all the things around her seat. Now as mentioned earlier, we were transiting in Hong Kong, which was very cold around the time. Hence the big bags that Daddy carried with him. That's where we put all our jackets and stuff, just in case. Being comfortable enough in the plane, Kecil deemed that her puny pink jacket as sufficient. Just look at her confidently striding through the aisle at the end of the flight:
.... only to have her socks knocked off (figuratively, that is) by the cold wind that greeted her just outside the plane:
Brrrr..... Hahhaa..... Well, it was only windy at the staircase. A special bus was already waiting at the bottom of the stair to take us into the safe (and warm! and not windy!) comfort of the airport building, where we were going to wait for our connecting flight to Surabaya.
We had lunch at the airport (no pics. You know how it is with Mama & food, right?). The best story was that since we were in Hong Kong, we were very much looking forward to eating some nice dim sum. So... we picked a nice looking restaurant, sat down, and Kecil promptly demanded to have sushi.
Right......
As it turned out, she was just confused between 'siomay' and 'sushi'.
She went on to enjoy the dim sum well enough, and in fact, the siomay became sort of an obsession through the rest of the journey. Ha!
It was a good beginning of our Holiday 2013 adventure. Stay tuned for more. Cheers!
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